Memoirs of A Geis..I mean Barjie
"Dear Friends,
A month has gone since I left New Zealand and I am well overdue in sending back the news that I have arrived safely in Cambridge and have settled in nicely. I’m sorry about the lateness of this email but it’s been a period of readjustment and I’m only now taking a pause to look back on it.
After I initially arrived I had a fantastic 10 days in London , where I took over a couch in my sister’s Wimbledon flat. Spent a lot of time sight seeing and did a fair bit of shopping. I started putting down my impressions and experiences on paper, I will send them to you once they’re in coherent form. Suffice to say that there’s a lot to see there and I look forward to returning there for Christmas.
The trip to Cambridge was a minor nightmare. One of the tube lines was down so I ended up lugging all my belongings up and down long flights of stairs and escalators that weren’t functioning and through the extensive underground passageways of the tube stations in central London . My muscles were aching for days afterwards. It was a relief to arrive to a warm welcome here in Clare Hall. The atmosphere here is friendly and relaxed and it has been easy to make friends and get to know people. Being a graduate college, things are more laid back here than in other colleges. Everyone is on a first name basis, students are able to mix with research fellows, and there are no silly rules like “only senior fellows are permitted to walk on the lawn”. The majority of students are from overseas, with a wide range of countries represented (there are two other kiwis as well). It’s a diverse mix of people with different backgrounds, experiences and areas of study, so it’s always interesting to meet new people here. Everyone here is frighteningly smart and discussions often become quite intellectual, it sometimes gets a bit intimidating. But there’s always the lighter side as well (eg late night games of monopoly). There are quite a few good facilities here: a bar, reading room, swimming pool (small but heated), gym, tennis court, and pianos. There are also many activities within college – music concerts, art exhibitions, dance parties, rowing (I gave it just a moments deliberation before good sense came to me), weekly film nights and many “freshers’ week” (ie O week) activities to make us feel at home.
Weather has been quite mild though gloomy most of the time. Most of Cambridge is very pretty and the town is gorgeous when the sun shines on the river, the leafy trees and the verdant manicured lawns. However the site where I work is a dull compound in the dense centre of town. Indeed on a grey day the stone buildings can feel a bit overbearing. There are cyclists everywhere as it’s the most convenient way to get around. While I’ve been coping on foot for the moment, I’m hoping to “acquire” my sister’s unused bike at some point to facilitate transportation. This will mean getting on a bike for the first time since I was about 11 so it remains to be seen how successful this plan will be.
The food at the college dining room is of pretty good quality and with the student subsidy it’s very reasonably priced, so I try to take advantage of that as much as possible. On Wednesdays they serve a formal dinner, which means we all dress up and are waited on at table – last time we were served guinea fowl, whatever that is! Apparently my college is ranked top for its formals. And despite being called “formal”, we are much less formal than many of the older colleges where people wear gowns, Masters sit at High Table, and prayers are said in Latin before the meal.
The other researchers in my department are all friendly and helpful and have made me feel very welcome. As you may know, my project is on the production of biodiesel and specifically I will be looking at how the mixing of the reactants affects the downstream separation of biodiesel from the glycerol byproduct. At least that’s the current plan. I’m quite happy with the way it’s taking shape, it’s very chemical engineeringy involving fluid flow, reactions, separation of immiscible fluids and droplet coalescence. Right now there’s a lot of reading to be done and sometimes it feels like treading water. There’s also been endless safety lectures – I even had to sit a test on safety – and induction stuff. I’m attending lectures on rheology and metrology, i.e. measuring/analytical equipment, more for interest’s sake than anything else. As a graduate I’m entitled to go to any undergrad course in the university, and I find lectures more bearable when I know there’s no exam or coursework to be done. There’s another student starting a Phd on growing algae to extract oil from. Although these days feel a bit like feeling your way through the dark, it’s nice to have someone else there to share the experience with. We kind of have two supervisors who have been providing us with a lot of direction and guidance. Next week they’re going to show us how to use the biodiesel reactor and analytical equipment – a nice change from having to work out stuff for myself!
There are countless clubs/concerts/lectures/discussions etc to join/see/do in Cambridge . If I didn’t have a degree to do I’m sure I could occupy myself quite easily with other activities. I finally joined a choir at Trinity College after some looking around – there are heaps of choirs here. Well I mainly chose there because some friends from my college were also going there. I’ve only been to one rehearsal so I can’t really comment on it except to say that it seems to require a high level of sight reading which is a bit worrying, especially when you’re trying to read German text and music at the same time. We’re practicing Brahm’s German Requiem and have less than eight weeks to get it together – frankly I’m sceptical about how good it’s going to be in the time. Though I was told by a singer at my college that English choirs often work on the basis of sight reading. If I don’t enjoy the choir this term, there are more relaxed choirs that I can join later.
It’s funny how a change in location can change some of the habits that one has done for one’s whole life. For example, I now shower in the mornings rather than the evenings, something my mother tried to persuade me to do for years in vain. I no longer drink milk for breakfast but instead have yoghurt and muesli (I’ve hardly ever eaten muesli before). But I guess some things never change – I still have my daily toasted vogels (the supermarket only stock the soy and linseed variety but it’s still the best bread by far).
Well I think I’ve rambled on long enough to give an impression of life here. Hope you are all well and I would love to hear news from home.
Till next time
Arjan
A month has gone since I left New Zealand and I am well overdue in sending back the news that I have arrived safely in Cambridge and have settled in nicely. I’m sorry about the lateness of this email but it’s been a period of readjustment and I’m only now taking a pause to look back on it.
After I initially arrived I had a fantastic 10 days in London , where I took over a couch in my sister’s Wimbledon flat. Spent a lot of time sight seeing and did a fair bit of shopping. I started putting down my impressions and experiences on paper, I will send them to you once they’re in coherent form. Suffice to say that there’s a lot to see there and I look forward to returning there for Christmas.
The trip to Cambridge was a minor nightmare. One of the tube lines was down so I ended up lugging all my belongings up and down long flights of stairs and escalators that weren’t functioning and through the extensive underground passageways of the tube stations in central London . My muscles were aching for days afterwards. It was a relief to arrive to a warm welcome here in Clare Hall. The atmosphere here is friendly and relaxed and it has been easy to make friends and get to know people. Being a graduate college, things are more laid back here than in other colleges. Everyone is on a first name basis, students are able to mix with research fellows, and there are no silly rules like “only senior fellows are permitted to walk on the lawn”. The majority of students are from overseas, with a wide range of countries represented (there are two other kiwis as well). It’s a diverse mix of people with different backgrounds, experiences and areas of study, so it’s always interesting to meet new people here. Everyone here is frighteningly smart and discussions often become quite intellectual, it sometimes gets a bit intimidating. But there’s always the lighter side as well (eg late night games of monopoly). There are quite a few good facilities here: a bar, reading room, swimming pool (small but heated), gym, tennis court, and pianos. There are also many activities within college – music concerts, art exhibitions, dance parties, rowing (I gave it just a moments deliberation before good sense came to me), weekly film nights and many “freshers’ week” (ie O week) activities to make us feel at home.
Weather has been quite mild though gloomy most of the time. Most of Cambridge is very pretty and the town is gorgeous when the sun shines on the river, the leafy trees and the verdant manicured lawns. However the site where I work is a dull compound in the dense centre of town. Indeed on a grey day the stone buildings can feel a bit overbearing. There are cyclists everywhere as it’s the most convenient way to get around. While I’ve been coping on foot for the moment, I’m hoping to “acquire” my sister’s unused bike at some point to facilitate transportation. This will mean getting on a bike for the first time since I was about 11 so it remains to be seen how successful this plan will be.
The food at the college dining room is of pretty good quality and with the student subsidy it’s very reasonably priced, so I try to take advantage of that as much as possible. On Wednesdays they serve a formal dinner, which means we all dress up and are waited on at table – last time we were served guinea fowl, whatever that is! Apparently my college is ranked top for its formals. And despite being called “formal”, we are much less formal than many of the older colleges where people wear gowns, Masters sit at High Table, and prayers are said in Latin before the meal.
The other researchers in my department are all friendly and helpful and have made me feel very welcome. As you may know, my project is on the production of biodiesel and specifically I will be looking at how the mixing of the reactants affects the downstream separation of biodiesel from the glycerol byproduct. At least that’s the current plan. I’m quite happy with the way it’s taking shape, it’s very chemical engineeringy involving fluid flow, reactions, separation of immiscible fluids and droplet coalescence. Right now there’s a lot of reading to be done and sometimes it feels like treading water. There’s also been endless safety lectures – I even had to sit a test on safety – and induction stuff. I’m attending lectures on rheology and metrology, i.e. measuring/analytical equipment, more for interest’s sake than anything else. As a graduate I’m entitled to go to any undergrad course in the university, and I find lectures more bearable when I know there’s no exam or coursework to be done. There’s another student starting a Phd on growing algae to extract oil from. Although these days feel a bit like feeling your way through the dark, it’s nice to have someone else there to share the experience with. We kind of have two supervisors who have been providing us with a lot of direction and guidance. Next week they’re going to show us how to use the biodiesel reactor and analytical equipment – a nice change from having to work out stuff for myself!
There are countless clubs/concerts/lectures/discussions etc to join/see/do in Cambridge . If I didn’t have a degree to do I’m sure I could occupy myself quite easily with other activities. I finally joined a choir at Trinity College after some looking around – there are heaps of choirs here. Well I mainly chose there because some friends from my college were also going there. I’ve only been to one rehearsal so I can’t really comment on it except to say that it seems to require a high level of sight reading which is a bit worrying, especially when you’re trying to read German text and music at the same time. We’re practicing Brahm’s German Requiem and have less than eight weeks to get it together – frankly I’m sceptical about how good it’s going to be in the time. Though I was told by a singer at my college that English choirs often work on the basis of sight reading. If I don’t enjoy the choir this term, there are more relaxed choirs that I can join later.
It’s funny how a change in location can change some of the habits that one has done for one’s whole life. For example, I now shower in the mornings rather than the evenings, something my mother tried to persuade me to do for years in vain. I no longer drink milk for breakfast but instead have yoghurt and muesli (I’ve hardly ever eaten muesli before). But I guess some things never change – I still have my daily toasted vogels (the supermarket only stock the soy and linseed variety but it’s still the best bread by far).
Well I think I’ve rambled on long enough to give an impression of life here. Hope you are all well and I would love to hear news from home.
Till next time
Arjan
posted by Kevin at 11:40 AM
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